Confusion and chaos loom as hundreds of thousands of federal employees begin their workweek Monday facing a deadline from President Donald Trump ’s cost-cutting chief, Elon Musk, to explain their recent accomplishments or risk losing their jobs.
Musk’s unusual demand has faced resistance from several key U.S. agencies led by the president’s loyalists — including the FBI, State Department, Homeland Security and the Pentagon — which instructed their employees over the weekend not to comply. Lawmakers in both parties said Musk’s mandate may be illegal, while unions are threatening to sue.
Here’s the latest:
To those concerned about billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk’s access to sensitive government data, his tear-it-down band of young techies doing that work is an unregulated threat to privacy. The view on the right is much different.
Voices influential in conservative politics describe the crew of engineers, most of whom are in their early 20s, as among the world’s best minds sent to save the U.S. government from bureaucratic bloat.
It comes at a moment when young progressives have criticized the Democratic Party for sidelining them and as the party’s hold on younger voters is slipping, particularly among young men. Republicans are using the contrasting images as a marketing strategy.
▶ Read more DOGE and young voters
Axed from jobs not easily found outside government, thousands of federal workers caught in President Trump’s cost-cutting efforts now face a difficult search for work.
“If you’re doing, say, vegetation sampling and prescribed fire as your main work, there aren’t many jobs,” says Eric Anderson, 48, of Chicago, who was fired Feb. 14 from his job as a biological science technician at Indiana Dunes National Park.
All the years of work Anderson put in — the master’s degree, the urban forestry classes, the wildfire deployments — seemed to disappear in a single email dismissing him.
He’s hoping there’s a chance he’s called back, but if he isn’t, he’s not sure what he’ll do next. He was so consumed with his firing that he broke a molar from grinding his teeth. But he knows he’s caught in something larger than himself, as the new administration unfurls its chaotic cost-cutting agenda.
▶ Read more about fired federal workers and their search for new jobs
Trump’s real-time confrontation with Maine’s governor over transgender athletes captured the conundrum many Democratic governors are facing in the Republican’s second term.
Gov. Janet Mills’ vow that she would see Trump in court over his threat to withhold money from the state if it didn’t comply with his executive order delighted Democrats who want more strident pushback. But the dust-up that played out in the open Friday as Trump hosted governors at the White House ticked off a president known to retaliate against people he considers enemies.
Hours after the spat, the federal Department of Education announced it was initiating an investigation into the Maine Department of Education over the inclusion of trans athletes. Trump doesn’t want them playing in girls and women’s sports; Maine law bars discrimination based on gender identity.
▶ Read more about how Democratic governors are reacting to the spat
At an annual gathering of conservative activists, the signature red “ Make America Great Again ” hats popularized by Trump were interspersed with a noticeable number of the black “Dark MAGA” hats made popular by Musk.
It was just one sign of Musk’s emerging influence and how the world’s wealthiest man — who once backed Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden — has become a conservative power center in his own right due to his connections to Trump.
Speakers at CPAC frequently brought up DOGE, playfully named after a meme coin with the face of a Shiba Inu dog popularized by Musk in 2021. They variously referred to him as a “white knight,” a “hero of free speech,” and according to one of his harshest critics, Steve Bannon, “Superman.”
▶ Read more about Musk’s influence on display at CPAC
Dan Bongino, a former U.S. Secret Service agent who has penned best-selling books, ran unsuccessfully for office and gained fame as a conservative pundit with TV shows and a popular podcast, has been chosen to serve as FBI deputy director.
Trump announced the appointment Sunday night in a post on his Truth Social platform, praising Bongino as “a man of incredible love and passion for our Country.” He called the announcement “great news for Law Enforcement and American Justice.”
The selection places two staunch Trump allies atop the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency at a time when Democrats are concerned that the president could seek to target his adversaries. Bongino would serve under Kash Patel, who was sworn in as FBI director at the White House on Friday.
▶ Read more about Dan Bongino
Confusion and chaos loom as hundreds of thousands of federal employees begin their workweek Monday facing a deadline from President Donald Trump’s cost-cutting chief, Elon Musk, to explain their recent accomplishments or risk losing their jobs.
Musk’s team sent an email to hundreds of thousands of federal employees Saturday giving them roughly 48 hours to report five specific things they had accomplished last week. In a separate message on X, Musk said any employee who failed to respond by the deadline — set in the email as 11:59 p.m. EST Monday — would lose their job.
Musk’s unusual demand has faced resistance from several key U.S. agencies led by the president’s loyalists — including the FBI, State Department, Homeland Security and the Pentagon — which instructed their employees over the weekend not to comply. Lawmakers in both parties said that Musk’s mandate may be illegal, while unions are threatening to sue.
▶ Read more about Musk’s deadline for federal workers
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